Destroying My Own Novel

"A ritual? What are you trying to do?" Agnez blocked Duaval's path from leaving the hut. The moment Duaval said about ritual, it was enough for her and the others to be cautious and needed an explanation from him.

Duaval stopped walking and looked down at Agnez with a straight face. "How about I explain it to you while we walk to the ritual area? It's the only way if you want to clear this floor,"

Agnez stared at Duaval for quite a while and then she moved away and let Duaval pass.

Gunnar and the others followed Agnez from behind, they started to see the resemblance between Agnez with Mykel. The difference was that Agnez was more daring and used more verbal to approach and intimidate no matter who she was dealing with.

"What's this ritual that you mentioned earlier, are you trying to summon the demon?" Agnez walked next to Duaval who barely had the strength to walk on his own.

"Yes, do you believe in spirits, Agnez Maurice?" Duaval asked and looked at Agnez.

"Spirits?" Agnez raised her eyebrow and stared back at Duaval. "Who knows, I have never met one and I don't know anything about it,"

"I see, no wonder you looked so surprised when I said ritual," Duaval said and tried to clear his throat. "In our world, Blovar, spirits live among us and they are the oldest being in our world," he started to explain.

"The spirits are like guardians of our world and they have been helping every living being in our world. Not all of the demons have a physical body, some are spirits like them," Duaval put his hands behind his back and looked at the bright sky. "There are good spirits and evil spirits, those spirits live in coexistence until the breakout happened and possessed every living thing,"

"You're telling me that the one who leads the demons here is still in a spirit form and you're doing a ritual to call that spirit?" Agnez squinted her blue eyes and pointed her gaze at Duaval.

"Yes, that's exactly what we are going to do," Duaval nodded in agreement and slightly smiled.

"Then what? What do you want to do once the spirit possessed a body?" Agnez asked with her eyebrow raised.

"Of course, you have to kill the vessel of the spirit," Duaval answered and looked at Agnez. "That's the only way to kill it,"

"Even though I don't know much about spirits and possessions, I watched a lot of movies and I don't think a spirit will die even if the vessel is killed," Agnez crossed her arms and was skeptical about the plan. "It sounds like a good plan, but it's not going to work nonetheless,"

Duaval chuckled quietly and nodded in agreement. "You're quite sharp, Agnez Maurice, no wonder you're the pack leader," He said and looked at Agnez. "That's right, but we have a way to trap the spirit inside of the vessel. Once the vessel dies, the spirit will follow because the spirit is bounded to the soul of the vessel,"

"That's enough explanation, now what I want to ask is, will it work?" Agnez asked.

"It will work because it's something that we, the people of Blovar have done for centuries. It's one of our traditions to kill evil spirit once it tries to do any harm," Duaval answered with confidence and without hesitation.

"We are here," Duaval said and pointed at the vast field as big as a football field.

They looked at dozens of giants sitting in a circle while some of them were wearing some kind of weird outfit and necklace then laid down in the middle. They saw a similar circle when they found the summoning ritual in District 14 and looking at how they used sacrifices, they all had a bad feeling about it.

"Are they going to be the sacrifice?" Agnez asked with her arms crossed to comfort herself. The sacrifices were giants, and she didn't know if that would make any difference or not but if it did, then the chance that they summoned something else was enough to make her feel unease.

"Yes, but they're going to be sacrificed after the ritual, not during the ritual," Duaval answered as he stood outside the circle.

"After the ritual? What's that supposed to mean?" Agnez furrowed her eyebrows and held the scabbard with her left hand.

"Do you see the necklace they're wearing? That's the talisman to repel the spirit from possessing their bodies while at the same time, trap the spirit inside the vessel," Duaval answered and pointed at the necklace.

"Wait, so they're the vessel?" Agnez asked.

"No, the vassal is going to be me," Duaval said and then entered the circle. "If the only vassal the spirit can possess is a weak old man like me with barely enough strength to live, the spirit will need a life force to be transferred into the vessel's body. That's why these men are here inside the circle to trap the spirit inside my body once their souls are being sucked," Duaval continued as he stood in the middle of the circle and looked at Agnez.

Agnez and the others stood outside the circle and watched Duaval sit down with his legs crossed. The giants were slowly walking away from the circle to avoid accidents or getting possessed by the spirit.

"Agnez Maurice, I'm asking you to kill me," Duaval said with a smile on his face. "I believe you're the only one who's capable of doing so and I can see it in your eyes that you have done this many times,"

Agnez stared at Duaval as she unsheathed her sword and used [Frost] on her sword that it started to make a crackling sound on the blade because it was slowly being swallowed by Eternal Ice.

"What a fierce warrior you are, Agnez Maurice," Duaval said and closed his eyes.

"Walk away from the circle, let her be the only one who stood in front of the circle," Dougal said so calmly and didn't even show any sadness on his face.

The moment everyone was away from the circle, the giants inside the circles held the pendant with both hands. The dark clouds were slowly forming above them and Agnez stared at them with her hand ready to kill anything that possessed Duaval's body.

It was only silence and the sound of the wind that started to form around the circle that blew Agnez's hair.

A minute passed and everyone was watching in the distance but nothing happened. Agnez on the other hand, felt a pressure around her body that her right hand started to tremble on its own which confused her.

"It's a shame that it has to be this way, I'm nothing but a loyal servant," Duaval quietly said.

The moment Duaval said that everyone in the circle including Agnez skipped a heartbeat. They couldn't move a single muscle on their bodies as they started to hear Duaval's mischievous chuckle.

Agnez tried to move her body with everything she had, but she couldn't do anything until she heard a whisper from behind her left ear. "So, you're the one that my sister mentioned,"

Agnez's vision went blank and she collapsed to the ground which made everyone panic.

"Agnez!" Gunnar screamed his lungs out as he ran toward the ritual but then an invisible barrier stopped him from getting closer to the ritual. "What's this?! A barrier?!"

"Gunnar! Move!" Rozan screamed as he pointed his staff at the invisible barrier.

Rozan used everything to break the barrier with magic that should be enough to annihilate a city but the barrier was unscratched by it. Everyone tried to help and used everything they had but it was all futile until they saw Agnez slowly standing right back up.

Agnez looked at her hands for quite a while and started to chuckle mischievously.

"What a wonderful body," Agnez said to herself. "No wonder my sisters like you,"

Duaval stared at Agnez and he was wreathed in a smile then he bowed his head at Agnez.

"Oh, Princess of Beast, I offer you my life," Duaval voice started to change and it sounded like a woman's voice.

Agnez looked at Duaval and smirked. "You're always one of my favorites, now you can go back," She said as she stared at the sword in her hand. "I will leave the palace in your care,"

Agnez swung her sword and it surprised Gunnar and the others that she managed to flatten everything in her path including Duaval and the giants who were supposed to be a sacrifice. The barrier shattered into pieces and it shocked them to the core that she possessed such power.

Dougal stared at Agnez as he took a deep breath and let out a big sigh.

[You have cleared the eleventh floor of the Behemoth Tower!]

[You are the first to clear the eleventh floor]

[Please enter your name]

[The red portal to the twelfth floor is now open!]

[The blue portal to your original world is now open!]